Emerald Isle Immigration Center - Creatives Rebuild New York

Musicians performing on stage in an indoor venue with a projected image in the background.

Musicians playing guitars on a riverside deck with city skyline in the background.

A child's painting activity with colorful paint on plates and a brush in hand.

Two people holding up colorful paintings, surrounded by paint supplies on a table.

Two people standing beside a painting at an art exhibition.

Photo by Eileen Condon

Four musicians with guitars and a banjo in a room with blue curtains and a projector.

Group of musicians holding acoustic guitars in a room with classical painting in the background.

Photo courtesy of EIIC Creatives

The Collaboration

As a collaborative team, these artists lent their instrumental music, songs, visual arts, and filmmaking to raise awareness about the immigration legal support, social services, and wellness programs available to immigrants at the EIIC. The team included Malian multi-instrumentalist and singer Abdoulaye Alhassane Touré, Irish traditional singer/guitarist Mary Courtney, Irish singer/songwriter and guitarist Allen Gogarty, Peruvian American filmmaker Erika Gregorio Lopez, Chinese American blues musician and singer Jeff Lum, and Colombian painter Alejandro Pinzón. EIIC’s Citizenship and Educational Programs Manager Liz Baber and Cultural Programs Manager Eileen Condon coordinated the program. From July 2022 through June of 2024, the EIIC Creatives produced visual arts workshops accompanied by blues, West African, Irish, and newly composed songs; short films; concert performances; exhibitions; a recurring film fest featuring documentaries about immigrant lives and labor, an educational program featuring Matinecock and Shinnecock artists, authors, and dancers for Indigenous People’s Day; numerous holiday mini-concerts and painting sessions for Bronx and Queens older adults, and other arts events that helped publicize EIIC ’s services to the people who need them most.

The Organization

A 501(c)(3) nonprofit founded in 1988 by leaders of the Irish Immigration Reform Movement, the Emerald Isle Immigration Center serves immigrants of more than 100 nationalities, out of offices in Queens and the Bronx. Services include immigration legal assistance and social services including healthcare and benefits access, mental wellness screenings, individual and group psychotherapy, social programs for older adults, and arts and cultural events.

Working with the EIIC Creatives was a win/win for the immigration center and the artists. Arts events were a great way to raise awareness of the resources that EIIC and NYC have to offer immigrants. And the artists were paid a decent living wage to share their rich heritage of arts, for all. Eileen Condon

Working with this group has broadened my musical horizons. I have been exposed to music and rhythms that I would not have been exposed to. The experience has left me approaching songwriting and composing with an added dimension of musical experience and exposure. Allen Gogarty

Working with the EIIC Creatives over the past two years has been inspiring. Seeing the public's acceptance of our art encourages me to continue delivering innovative and enriching experiences that integrate the communities where my artistic work reaches. Alejandro Pinzón

Having had the fortune of performing collectively on behalf of Emerald Isle, we've been able to demonstrate universal human commonality exists underneath our cultural backgrounds, and that we can still contribute functionally and collectively entertain before varied audiences with success and appeal.